


A Stranger in the City

by lady_ragnell



Series: A Foggy Day (In London Town) [4]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Christmas With Family, F/F, Friendship, Gen, Meeting the Parents, law school era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 04:33:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5525528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_ragnell/pseuds/lady_ragnell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Angie meets Foggy's law school roommate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Stranger in the City

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning:** references to Peggy's dementia
> 
> The title, as always, is from the song "A Foggy Day (In London Town)."

Angie, most days, knows Foggy better than anyone else. His parents love him, but he got lost in the sea of daughters, and she was always his favorite babysitter. She knows how to read him.

She knows, for instance, how to read the beam on his face as he's introducing his roommate around to everyone at the family Christmas. It's mostly a Nelson Christmas, since the Martinellis are out in Jersey, but Angie was invited because everyone's a little worried for her, now that Peg's moved south to DC to be with her family and SHIELD. His parents just shake hands with this Matthew, welcome him, treat him like a guest and a fragile one, all ready to get him drinks and snacks and more hugs than he probably wants, but Angie knows to size him up.

Judging by Foggy's obvious nervousness when he brings Matthew over, he knows it. “Aunt Angie, this is Matt Murdock, my roommate. Matt, this is Angie Martinelli, she's Mom's aunt.”

Now that's a charming smile, the same one Foggy's got when he tries, the kind of smile that gets anyone on your side. Angie can appreciate a smile like that, but it makes her trust the kid less. “I've heard all about you, Ms. Martinelli—and I've heard a few of your movies. Didn't see any before I ...” He trails off and gestures at his sunglasses.

If he's waiting for her to coo over his blindness, he's going to be waiting a while. Angie has had Nicholas Fury at her Christmas dinner table. She knows when people don't want to be pitied. “Probably Foggy's fault you saw any of them, I'm guessing.” Now that's a pair of sheepish faces if you ever saw one. “Nice to meet you, Matt. I'm sure I'll talk to you sometime this evening, but neither of you have any food yet, and Foggy's mother won't let that stand for long. Go get some snacks, go get some eggnog and make sure it's as spiked as you want it, and then come over here and I'll bore you with all my Broadway stories.”

Foggy grins at her and kisses her on the cheek. “You could never bore anyone, Aunt Angie. Come on, Matt, we'd better do what she says before Uncle Chuck finishes off the spinach balls.”

Angie watches them go and then collars Foggy's sister Debbie as she goes by, to catch up with her a bit before she goes back to her boyfriend.

*

She finds Matthew sitting on his own in the hall outside the kitchen later on. There isn't a lot of space in the apartment, not enough for real privacy with a family this big, but he found the quietest place, and he's leaning against the wall like it's the only thing propping him up. “I'm guessing you don't have a large family, kid.”

He doesn't seem surprised that it's her coming to interrupt his solitude. “Not much of one at all, Ms. Martinelli.”

“They're a lot. Just be glad the Martinellis aren't here too.”

Matthew nods, hands fidgeting on his cane. She doesn't think he's really using it, but he seems to want to keep his hands busy. “I heard … I heard you're here because your partner, she had to—”

“You don't need to stumble over it. She's in care. I'll probably get on the phone with her later, she's still pretty lucid, these days. It's a bit of a lonely Christmas, but I'm going down to stay with her for a few weeks in the new year.”

“That sounds lovely,” he says. He's so polite, she's just waiting for him to say “yes, ma'am” every few seconds.

“Do you want to be on your own?”

He considers that. It makes her like him, that he doesn't just say no, it's fine that she's there. Angie takes great joy in bossing people around, but sometimes the best people are the ones that don't let her boss. “I'm almost ready to go back. It's just noisy in there. A lot of voices to pick out of the crowd. You can stay, if you'd rather not be in there right now.”

It doesn't really matter much to her, but Angie thinks he could use the company, even if he doesn't necessarily want it. “Okay, kid, I'll stay here for a few minutes if you promise to lend me that cane if my hip starts bothering me, and if you tell me what Foggy is up to at law school I'll tell you how he got his nickname.”

Matthew laughs, head thrown back, on the edge of a snort, and Angie definitely knows why Foggy likes him. “That sounds wonderful, Ms. Martinelli, and you can have the cane now if you promise to give me your arm when we go back to the living room.”

Angie grins. This, she can work with.

*

Foggy finds her at the end of the night. She's sleeping in the guest room, with Matthew and Foggy on the couch and a collection of pillows on the floor respectively, and he knocks on the door when she's in her nightgown and taking off her makeup, and when she gestures him over he comes and joins in the routine just like he always did when he was a kid, handing her the right jar at the right time.

“What do you think of him?” he asks quietly after a few minutes, screwing the lid back on her cold cream.

She reaches over to ruffle his hair. He's been keeping it long since high school, but it's longer right now, fallen out of a ponytail that Anna probably insisted on. “He's a keeper. Is he a boyfriend, or—”

“Friend-friend. I'm pretty sure Matt is painfully straight, but that's probably smart. Roommates and sleeping together, that doesn't work too well.”

Angie could contest that, but she doesn't. “Well, he's a good kid. Great smile. He'll have juries eating out of the palm of his hand.”

“And he's so smart,” says Foggy, a little bit in awe. “You should see all the studying he does, all the precedents and laws he can just pull out of his head. I mean, I'm good at arguing, but he just knows all this stuff.”

“Of course you're good at arguing, you learned from the best.” Angie took a recurring role as a judge on a short-lived crime show at the same time he was applying to law schools and they studied all the terminology together and figured out, during line practice, that Foggy can make a very convincing opening argument. “He's good people, Foggy. You keep him around.”

Foggy grins and ducks his head to look at his lap. Kid is full of tells. It's a really good thing Peggy never quite got around to recruiting him. “Don't worry, Aunt Angie, I'm planning on it.”

*

Angie calls down to talk to Peg in DC Christmas morning early, ducking out of breakfast preparations to shut herself back in the guest room. “Morning, English,” she says when Sharon has chatted to her for a minute and handed the phone over. “You're missing quite a party over here.”

“We're having a time of it down here as well,” says Peggy, and it's a good morning, it seems, because there's the smile and the sharpness in her voice. “Burned French toast, a minor international crisis … I would much rather be with you.”

“You'd have a lot of fun. Foggy brought his roommate along, he's a good kid—and Foggy sends his love, by the way.”

“The same back to him, of course. The roommate is good, then? Foggy told me a bit about him when we were packing me up to come down here, I had hoped to meet him but apparently there were midterms or something.”

“Quiet. Seems to keep things to himself a lot.” Angie sighs. “I know Foggy isn't a kid anymore, but I'm trying not to feel like this is his ill-fated crush on Sharon all over again.”

Peggy laughs. “Foggy is a grown man, unbelievable as that seems. I very much doubt there will be sad poetry this time. And if there is, well, he did make his high school's literary magazine last time.”

Angie still has that poem framed in a box. Foggy begged her to take it down as soon as he saw she'd done it, but it's not like she could get rid of it. “I'll be sure to give a dramatic reading if it does happen, English, don't worry.”

“I knew you wouldn't fail me,” says Peggy, and moves on to ask about Anna and the other kids, though they'll no doubt discuss Foggy again before the call ends. They've always been pretty shameless about playing favorites.

Angie stays on the phone for about fifteen minutes, until Sharon starts talking to Peggy on the other end of the line, something about a visitor. Probably Nick. He's pretty good about visiting Peggy. “I'll see you soon, English,” says Angie, and tries to keep the wobble out of her voice.

“Can't be soon enough, darling,” says Peggy. “All my love to you and to the family, and keep an eye on that Matthew for me.”

“Always,” says Angie, and they say their goodbyes and hang up. She wipes her eyes a little and checks her makeup before she leaves the guest room again.

Matthew is out in the hall again, same position he was last night, and he has the grace to look sheepish when Angie sighs at him. “They're fighting over what to put in the pancakes. I thought I would duck out for a few minutes. I wasn't eavesdropping or anything.”

He's a mess of tells too. Jesus, these kids. It's a good thing Angie's hair is already white or it would be turning that way fast. “Of course not, kid. How about you escort an old lady to the living room and I'll tell you all of Foggy's embarrassing childhood stories, since you can't get the full effect of the picture of him wearing a feather boa and trying to declaim Shakespeare.”

There's that laugh again, the big honest one that makes her a little less worried about Foggy's heart. Matthew isn't a bad kid, even if she wants to keep an eye on him. “That sounds lovely, Ms. Martinelli.”

She puts her hand on his elbow and starts steering him in the direction of the living room. “I think you'd better call me Angie if you're going to stick around.”

“Angie,” he says, testing it out. She's pretty sure she'll have to tell him that every time she sees him, but it's a start.


End file.
